The International Transport Game

[FQ]

Thanks for the heads up on the trolleybuses. Is there anything this city doesn't have?
Due to costs, I can only dream, but Vancouver is fast going up the list of places to visit.

Vancouver is definitely something.

 

[Springs Branch]

Continuing the theme of unusual transit we enter Metrotown station to sample Vancouver's SkyTrain driverless light rail.

We board the 1335 Expo Line train towards Waterfront, alighting at Main Street - Science World station at 1347 Tuesday afternoon.

We realise we are a bit early for today's departure of The Canadian from the adjacent Pacific Central Station, which is not until 2030 Tuesday evening and will take 4½ days to Toronto (though, of course, all subsequent moves are at discretion of the poster).

Source: translink.ca (and viarail.ca )

 

[Bodie]

I've been looking into the Canadian too. Great minds think alike. Plenty of time for us to still explore Vancouver.

Taking another Expo line train at 1353 we travel to the Expo's terminus of King George arriving there at 1426 on Tuesday afternoon

Source: translink.ca

 

[Springs Branch]

King George terminus has a number of connecting buses which are all suburban feeder routes, so we decide to use SkyTrain to head part way back towards downtown Vancouver.

We board the 1438 Expo Line departure, alighting at 29th Avenue Station at 1504 Tuesday afternoon.

Source: translink.ca

 

[Bodie]

Still on an Expo line train, having left at 1510 we go to Waterfront Station where we arrive at 1523 on Tuesday afternoon

Source: translink.ca

 

[Springs Branch]

Now for yet another facet of Vancouver's integrated public transport system ....

From Waterfront Station we take the 1531 SeaBus fast catamaran sailing to North Vancouver, Lonsdale Quay arriving 1543 Tuesday afternoon.

Source: translink.ca

 

[Bodie]

Vancouver, the city that just keeps giving. Off this bus move we have a chance to ride a cable car. Of course that's up to the next poster. They might not have a head for heights!

We walk from the quay and at 1551 at the bus stop named 'WB W Esplanade at Rogers Ave' we board Translink 236 to Grouse Mountain Skyride arriving 1622 on Tuesday afternoon

Source: translink.ca

 

[DasLunatic]

As nice as it'd be to ride the cable car, it's currently closed for maintenance. So we had back to the bus stop and await the 1650 232 bus back to Phibbs Exchange (Bay 9), arriving there at 1737 Tuesday evening.

Google Maps

 

[Bodie]

That's just our luck

We travel back South of the river as it were, by road transport this time.

Translink 210 leaving at 1746 and travelling to Burrard Station arriving 1813 on Tuesday

Source: translink.ca

 

[Springs Branch]

One more chance to sample another of Vancouver's trolleybuses.

We walk 2 blocks to the Granville St / Dunsmuir St bus stop and take Mountain Coast Bus Company trolleybus service 16 at 1825, arriving 29th Avenue SkyTrain Station at 1906 Tuesday evening.

Source: translink.ca

 

[Bodie]

Taking Translink 33 now to the bus stop across the road from King Edward station, NB Cambie St at W King Edward Ave leaving at 1925 and arriving at 1942 on Tuesday evening

Source: translink.ca

 

[Springs Branch]

It certainly feels odd seeing these stations named King Edward, King George etc in a North American city. In the US, the only such reference to a king would be Martin Luther King.

Anyhow, a SkyTrain Canada Line train leaving at 1948 sees us arriving at Waterfront Station at 1956 Tuesday evening.

Source: translink.ca

 

[Bodie]

Translink number 8 at 2005 to SB Main St at Terminal Ave arriving 2014 on Tuesday evening

Source: translink.ca

I wonder what we're doing here?

 

[Springs Branch]

We enter Vancouver's Pacific Central station and board VIA Rail train no. 2 (The Canadian).

There are several potential stopovers along the way, but having paid $3,272 each for Prestige Sleeper Class, we choose to take the epic trip through to Toronto.

We depart Vancouver at 2030 Tuesday evening and miraculously arrive on-time, 4 days 13 hours later, at Toronto Union Station at 0930 Sunday morning.

Source: viarail.ca

 

[TAS]

We decided to take the Streetcar, boarding the 09:45 509 departure to Exhibition Loop, arriving at 10:03 on Sunday morning

Source:tripplanner.ttc.ca

 

[Springs Branch]

Transferring to another line, we depart Exhibition Loop on the 511 - Bathurst Streetcar at 1014, arriving Bathurst Station at 1037 Sunday morning.

Source: ttc.ca

 

[Bodie]

Taking a Line 2 train at 1046 we travel the short distance to the delightfully named Bloor-Yonge station arriving 1052 on Sunday morning

Source: ttc.ca
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Bump up

 

[Springs Branch]

We transfer to Line 1 of the Subway, boarding a train towards Downsview at 1101 and alighting at Union Station at 1108 Sunday morning.

Source: ttc.ca

 

[Bodie]

This is a great chance to ride the brand new Union Pearson Express.
Can't find any full timetables but UP website says runs every day from 0530 to 0100, every 15 minutes and takes 25 minutes to reach the airport. So that's what I'm going off.

We decide to not risk the 1115 departure, as 7 minutes is tight at this large station. We therefore board the 1130 Union Pearson Express departure to Toronto Pearson Airport - Terminal 1 arriving at 1155 on Sunday morning

Source: upexpress.com

 

[Springs Branch]

We board Air Canada Express Flight AC7470 departing Terminal 1 at 1250, arriving at Newark International, NJ, USA at 1428 Sunday afternoon.

Source: aircanada.com

 

[Bodie]

We connect here with American Airlines 519 with takes off at 1500 and lands at Charlotte Douglas International, North Carolina at 1658 on Sunday afternoon

Source: flightstats.com

 

[Springs Branch]

We continue on American Airlines Flight 1799 at 1805, arriving San Francisco International at 2041 Sunday evening.

Source: flightstats.com

 

[Bodie]

Feeling the pull of home, we go all transcontinental by boarding British Airways 286 at 2120 and land at London Heathrow at 1445 on Monday afternoon

Source: flightstats.com

 

[Springs Branch]

As we cannot exit at a UK airport (unless we were in Northern Ireland), and after checking whether we can get from Heathrow to the Holy Grail of RailForum games - the Isle Of Man (very disappointed to find we can't!), we transfer to another BA flight ......

British Airways 546 leaving at 1605, arriving at Rome Fiumicino at 1935 Monday evening.

Source: britishairways.com

 

[DasLunatic]

We can however, get to the IOM from Manchester, so as a method of timewasting, we board Alitalia 64 to Madrid - Barajas, taking off at 2115 and landing at 2355 Monday night.

(Google Flights)

 

[me123]

We manage a tight connection, that's quite possible at this time of night as the airport is very quiet. We just make it to the gate for LAN Perú flight 2707, and our 767 conveys us through the night to Lima, Perú. We touch down in Lima Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez at 06:55am local time on Tuesday morning.

Source - LAN.com

 

[DasLunatic]

It just so happened that we landed during a public transport strike, so we are forced to await another flight out of here. We decide upon a trip to São Paulo, Brazil - Sao Paulo Guarulhos International on LAN 2767. It leaves at 0920 and lands at 1715 Tuesday afternoon.

(Google Maps/Flights)

 

[Bodie]

South America! - our last inhabited continent.

Keeping our feet on the ground for the next leg, we take a look around for some onward ground transportation.
Rail is a no go as the planned extension that should have been completed this year is now not due to open till 2017.
We're not waiting that long.

So at 1750 we take the Airport Bus Service to Praça da República arriving at 1845 on Tuesday evening

Source: airportbusservice.com

 

[Springs Branch]

Sao Paulo has a moderately extensive subway and metropolitan heavy rail system, apparently with some overcrowding issues (as you might expect in one of the most populous cities in the world) and a recently-opened new line operated by a monorail (Line 15 - Silver, unfortunately just closing for the evening by the time we arrive in town).

So we go to explore, entering the República Metro station and head for the eastern terminus of Line 3 - Red .

The official journey planner does not give specfic departure times (only opening & closing times and journey time estimates between any two stations). Let's say we depart at 1900, trip duration is given as 37 minutes, so we arrive at Corinthians-Itaquera Metro station at 1937 Tuesday evening.

Source: metro.sp.gov.br/en

 

[Bodie]

struggling to find that English version. In fact pretty much every website is steadfastly stuck in Portuguese

Thus it's all thanks to Google maps.

We switch to CPTM Line 11 leaving at 1950 and travelling to Estudantes arriving at 2102 on Tuesday evening

Source: Google maps